Skip to main content

The Quakers Tea Table Overturn’d’: A Literary Satire of the Eighteenth Century Tea Party

Date
‘The Quakers Tea Table Overturn'd’, Leeds University Library, Brotherton Collection MS Lt 58

A short article has recently been published by current PhD student Liz Stainforth (School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies) and the food historian C. Anne Wilson in the food history journal, Petits Propos Culinaires (PPC), March 2015.

Entitled ‘The Quakers Tea Table Overturn’d’: A Literary Satire of the Eighteenth Century Tea Party’, the reference to tea tables is borrowed from the title of the manuscript poem held in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library, which is the subject of the article. The theme was developed from research undertaken for an exhibition of creamware, co-curated by Liz and fellow students on the MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies at Leeds in 2010.

The full title of the long satirical poem is ‘The Quakers tea table overturn’d, the tea spill’d and all the china broke’. Dated 1717 (also the year when the first tea shop for women was opened), it reflects the contemporary Quaker concern that young Quaker girls were being tempted to indulge in worldly pleasures through attending tea parties.

Image of Petit Propos Culinaire 102 book coverThe 24-leaf manuscript is part of the Brotherton Collection, and is thought to be the only one of its kind. As well as being interesting for the study of Quaker history, it also holds considerable interest for the food historian. This is because of the detail in which the ceremony of the tea service is portrayed, and for the numerous articles identified in the making and serving of tea. The article gives an analysis of those passages in which the practice of tea drinking is described.

The article reflects Liz’s ongoing interest in Special Collections and her experience helping to maintain the Leeds Verse database, creating catalogue entries for poetry from 17th and 18th century manuscripts. This poem is one of hundreds recorded in the database, from manuscripts in Special Collections, many of which are miscellanies and commonplace books that have not been previously indexed.

More information about the article can be found on the publishers’ website.

More information about the Leeds Verse database can be found here.

Images

‘The Quakers Tea Table Overturn'd’, Leeds University Library, Brotherton Collection MS Lt 58; Cover of Petits Propos Culinaires (PPC), March 2015 edition.